The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Micro Rockets blast to title

Local Pop Warner team wins national crown

By Dick Sparrer

They say dreams can come true in Disneyworld's Magic Kingdom.

And the Sunnyvale Micro Rockets proved it when they traveled to Florida earlier this month and won the Pop Warner Football national championship.

It was a dream come true for the Sunnyvale boys, but there was nothing magical about it. The Micro Rockets won the national crown thanks to talent, perseverance and a lot of hard work.

"The core of this team has been together since they were 8 years old," said Micro Rockets head coach Marvin Jeffcoats of the team of 12-and 13-year-olds. "They've climbed progressively all through the years."

They started out as division champions, then won league and regional championships before finally winning the national crown.

And Sunnyvale won that national title in convincing fashion, crushing a team from Garner, N.C., 52-6 in the championship game.

Was Jeffcoats surprised by the lopsided victory?

"No, because we've been holding back all year long," he admitted. "We had such an awesome team. We were so deep at all positions. I told the boys in this one that there was no holding back, it was our last game."

And they certainly held nothing back. The Micro Rockets, who had pounded the Tigers from Independence, Mo., in the semifinals, coasted to the easy win in the finale.

And why should the devastating victory have surprised Jeffcoats? After all, his club had scored over 400 points while allowing just a dozen in the 14 games leading up to the national championship game.

The Micro Rockets posted a 12-0 record in the Peninsula Pop Warner League, clinching the league championship with a win at Santa Clara's Townsend Field.

The Sunnyvale Pop Warner team advanced to the Northwest regional championship game in Petaluma as the Peninsula League champion, and the Micro Rockets pounded San Francisco 34-0 to win the trip to Florida for the Nationals.

Sunnyvale added the wins over Missouri and North Carolina in Florida to complete a 15-0 season. The Micro Rockets scored over 480 points in the 15 games while allowing just 18 points (that's an incredible average of 32-1.2 per game).

Quarterback Brandon Ting was the Sunnyvale offensive leader along with running backs Robert Perry and Jerome Isie and receivers Daniel Dressman and Ryan Ting.

Center Nicholas DeLaTorre, guards Kai Garcia and Matthew Leavensworth, tackles Matthew Richards and Leonard Wells, and tight end William Faules were other key offensive players for the Micro Rockets.

Perry and Isie also starred defensively as linebackers for the champs, and Dressman, B. Ting and R. Ting were key players in the defensive secondary along with Delaine Hall.

Benny Criado and Wells were stars in the defensive line along with Richards and noseguard Demonte Harrell.

But it was more than just the starting unit that starred for the Micro Rockets this fall.

"Our second was very deep," said Jeffcoats.

Quarterback Troy Tulowitzki was a standout along with running backs Willie Grimes and Eric Cooper.

Gabe Zeballos, Chad Talley, Aaron Smith, David Siefert, Ryan Scott, Eric Plazola, Brenton Mattade and Gabriel Perez were key offensive linemen for Sunnyvale.

Kenneth Mills, Gilbert Aragon and Donny Johnson played well in the defensive secondary for the Micro Rockets, and Max Batorski, Daniel Atondo, Ryan McCarthy, Sean McCauley and Jonathan Hyrne were standouts in the defensive line.

Jeffcoats, in just his fourth year as a Sunnyvale coach and only his second year as a head coach, expected big things from this year's squad. He led many of these players to the national finals a year ago, and they were joined by Sunnyvale players who played for the national runner-up pee-wee team last season.

Perry and Tulowitzki provided even further national experience to the squad. The two were members of the Sunnyvale National Little League major-division all-star team that advanced to the finals of the Western regionals in San Bernadino last summer.

Jeffcoats was assisted this fall by coaches Bob Montalvo, Joe Montalvo, Kirby Hess, John Hendy, Bill Kalivas, Richard Quinones and Bruce Trujillo. The team mother was Deanna Jeffcoats.

Jeffcoats returns to the program where he played as a youngster. He was a member of a Sunnyvale Pop Warner team coached by his father, Marvin Jeffcoats Sr., who coached in the league for "20 some years," said his son.

Jeffcoats didn't reach the lofty levels as a player that he has as a coach. In fact, "this is the first team in Sunnyvale Pop Warner history to go to and win a national championship," he said.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 31, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.